(Credits: Raph Pour-Hashemi)
Mon 15 December 2025 16:36, UK
It’s not always easy to spot some of the biggest songs of all time in the wild. When an artist sits down to write a song, any sense of commercial potential is usually brushed to the side in favour of finding something they feel they can add a piece of themselves to. Dave Grohl may have an uncanny ability to make bags of songs that relate to fans worldwide in Foo Fighters, one of the band’s biggest hits almost ended up not being released.
Then again, Grohl was never one to look at the superstar potential of his work. Even as far back as his days in Nirvana, Grohl was looking to make music for himself, often throwing different pieces of music together in the background while Kurt Cobain worked on his masterpieces. By the time Cobain passed away, though, Grohl knew that music would be his way to deal with his grief.
Going into the studio with a handful of songs that he had been sitting on since Nirvana’s end, Grohl wanted to record as much as he could over a few days, creating a cassette that would become the first Foo Fighters album. While Grohl didn’t expect the album to be a massive hit, he was already on the verge of writing even bigger songs.
Despite some trepidation about carrying on with the band, bassist Nate Mendel was even sceptical about Grohl’s ability to write songs until he heard him play ‘My Hero’. As Mendel recalled in Back and Forth, “‘Can Dave still write songs? Will we suck?’. I had no idea what was going to happen. Then I knew we were going to be okay when I heard the song ‘My Hero’ because it was great.”
After the release of The Colour and the Shape, the band turned into a rock and roll tour de force, with Grohl leading the charge even when band members were falling off left and right. By the time the group had patched up their differences following the release of the album One By One, Grohl wanted to aim even bigger for the follow-up.
Dave Grohl sweating it out for Foo Fighters. (Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Exploring both sides of his musical personality, In Your Honour is a tale of two albums featuring one disc of stadium rock songs and another full of introspective acoustic cuts from the band. Although the idea of a lavish double album may have been a tough sell for some fans, they knew they were in good hands when they heard the song ‘Best of You’ for the first time.
When Grohl first put the song together, though, he barely thought enough of it to bring it to the band, let alone put it down on the record. Discussing the making of the album, Grohl said that he would eventually be talked into recording the song, saying, “I’d kind of forgotten about ‘Best Of You’. I thought we could do better. So it was shelved, and it was our manager who came in and said, ‘What happened to that ‘Best Of You’ song?’. So we pulled it out and worked on it a little more”.
While the lyrics may have been relatively skeletal on the final mix, Grohl turned in one of the most emotionally gripping songs of the band’s career, turning the song into a helping hand to anyone struggling through a difficult time. Grohl may have thought the band was better than a tune like this, but some songs articulate emotions more potent than people realise.
The track has become an undeniable hit for the group. It even ranks among one of their favourite moments as Prince, during his 2007 halftime Super Bowl Show, covered the track. “Having been a massive Prince fan my whole life, I was flattered beyond words.,” Grohl said. “What an honour to be covered by one of your heroes.”
It goes to show that those first thoughts as an artist don’t always represent the audience. Whether one should bow to pressure and give in on their initial response is really down to how highly you value the person and their opinion. Grohl got lucky when perhaps the most beloved song of his arsenal was rescued from the scrapheap.
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